Every budgeting method assumes a number arrives on the same day each month. For a great many people it does not — and being told to allocate percentages of a figure you cannot predict is useless advice.

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Budget from your floor

Look back twelve months and find your worst month's income. That, or something close to it, is your baseline. Build your entire fixed budget on that number.

It will feel too conservative. That is the point. A budget you can meet in your worst month is a budget you never fail.

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Give the good months a job

The surplus from a good month is not spending money and it is not a surprise. It has a predetermined destination, decided in advance:

1. Top up the buffer account until it holds three months of baseline income.
2. Then the emergency fund, which is separate and for emergencies, not for lean months.
3. Then investing.

The buffer is what converts an irregular income into a regular one. Money lands in the buffer; a fixed "salary" moves from the buffer to your spending account on the same day each month.

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Pay yourself a salary

Once the buffer holds a few months, pay yourself a fixed amount on a fixed day. Your income becomes irregular only on the way in. On the way out it is boring, which is what makes it plannable.

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Tax and obligations, set aside on arrival

If you owe tax or have obligations that arrive annually, move that share out on the day money lands — not when the bill does. Money that has been sitting in your account for eleven months does not feel like the government's.

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Do this today

Find your worst month in the last year. Write that number down. That is what you are allowed to build fixed commitments on.